David Amzallag reports on his blog that SIX apprentices have passed their exams and become members of the corps de ballet. This is undoubtedly the largest ever intake of aspirants - all of whom are Danish (or half Danish) - and suggests how well the RDB school is currently doing in terms of talent. Among the new corps members is Luke Schaufuss, son of Peter Schaufuss and sister of current company member Tara Schaufuss.

I was very worried that the current financial woes would preclude the hiring of many new corps dancers, and looking back one has to wonder if the cuts in the dancer ranks early this year were in part made to ensure funds were available to hire new aspirants. While it hurts to lose existing talent, it's really crushing to have brilliant young dancers who can't get into the company because of financial issues.

I will be interested to see whether the other 6 aspirants stay with the school - I think it unlikely that the 3rd year aspirant will remain, but it's entirely possibly that the 4 2nd year and 2 1st year aspirants will be asked to stay on, and hopefully the ranks added to from the school. If not, I wish them the very best - I know the school has been working hard to transition to an institution that prepares dancers for companies beyond the RDB, and I would look to companies like the Royal Swedish Ballet, the Hamburg Ballet and the Finnish National Ballet as places graduates might end up other than the RDB.

As to the other aspirants - Magnus Christoffersen and Viktoria Falck-Schmidt are now 3rd year apprentices and Sebastian Haynes and Louise Brorsen are now 2nd year apprentices. The other three men, however, have not been granted another years' apprenticeship, so will be looking for jobs elsewhere. One hopes they will find good opportunities in Europe or further abroad (and hopefully not the Schaufuss Ballet).

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